MUSIC V MUSIC: REX ORANGE COUNTY - APRICOT PRINCESS

©℗2017 Rex Orange County

Rex Orange County

Apricot Princess

Music v Music

Ft. James Day
25/01/20

A recurring segment on this blog and the origin of the title name itself; Music v Music takes a fan-favourite album and breaks it down, with the intention of finding the best track on the record.

Rex Orange County's sophomore album acts as a significant step in his musical career. Moving on from his bedroom-produced debut album, bcos u will never b free, Alex O'Connor emphasised the sonic quality of his music with the use of a grand piano, string section, and more refined production to match the increase in quality of his lyrics and song-writing capability. 2017's Apricot Princess is a romantic journey; a ten track love letter to his girlfriend, Thea, who features on two of the album's songs. Despite the escalated tonal shift, O'Connor remained true to his signature jazz-inspired chord progressions and honest lyricism, with his boyish voice belting out various ballads - it's hard not to sing along. 

Each time, I'll be joined by a friend who loves the album enough to discuss it for this segment instead of listening to it; For Apricot Princess' dissection, I'd acquired the help of James Day; a friend I'd been to one of Rex's earlier gigs with in February of 2018, a time where his most popular song on Spotify was the single Uno, with just over a million plays.

After a couple of hours of catching up in our favourite café spot in Chelmsford, I whip out the laptop; Mr. Day knows what's coming. Given the strength of every song on the album, we somehow write out our favourite songs, and start to think about which one takes the number one spot. Loving Rex is very, very easy. 

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JR: Right, what's the best song on Apricot Princess?

JD: Apricot Princess (laughs).

JR: The opener?

JD: Yeah, I just think it's an amazing opening to an amazing album. As we've said before, it's quite rare that the opening track is the strongest one, but like the last one of these, I think it really is.

JR: Well it's a massive song; its not just him and his guitar in his bedroom anymore. . .

JD: Yeah! It's such a big moment for him starting the album with all these violins and shit, it's completely different to his old stuff. But he's still remaining true to what he was, originally.

JR: He's still very much using the same kind of chords and progressions just like on 'bcos', but yeah you're right, its wayyy bigger sound wise. I think a lot of it was recorded in an old church actually, the Paul Epworth studios.

JD: The song sets you up really well, 'cause its a whole ride of tones and rhythms just like the album.

JR: Yeah it does, plus his girlfriend does background vocals for it which is sick. The song, and the whole album is about her, so having her vocals is quite a good indication of what's to come.

JD: Whenever I listen to music, I sometimes imagine that I'm in the singer's position, and when I do that with this album I can really tell that Rex and Thea have a properly true love. It's so cool.

JR: I've also got that down on my list for literally exactly the same reasons (laughs), its very good. I've got Sycamore Girl written down as well. . ?

JD: Right, I don't have that, but I genuinely don't dislike any of the songs on this album, so that's not to say I don't like it.

JR: Yeah fair enough, I think it's quite a simple chord progression, like there's nothing that impressive about it. But in a way, I feel like that makes it stronger than a lot of other songs, because it manages to make such a statement with very little effort, in a way.

JD: I love that it has Thea on it, in a very central role this time. He brought her out to perform it as a duet when we saw him live as well, and that was definitely one of the highlights of the whole show.

JR: I never used to be a massive fan of it, because I was such a massive fan of Untitled, I'd skip over the two tracks before it, including Sycamore Girl.

JD: I think their voices really compliment each other on the track. Even though they're so different, they match really well.

JR: Well I think they met at BRIT School, so I think they were both talented already. They didn't just both happen to be really good singers when they started dating (laughs).

JD: So my next one was 4 Seasons. I've skipped over quite a few there on the tracklist, but I feel like I prefer the second half.

JR: God don't make me pick, that's well hard.

JD: 4 Seasons just feels like the most relatable song for me, when he talks about his old friends. The fact they don't care about him, but he doesn't care either. Kinda hits home a bit.

JR: I think the name of it is pretty fitting, the song has four pretty different sections and I reckon that's why its such a popular one with his fans. It's the longest song on the album too. . .

JD: That's interesting actually, 'cause when I think about my favourite songs from albums they tend to end up being the longer ones-

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JR: No More Parties in LA, Smuckers. . .

JD: Yeah! Exactly.

JR: I didn't have 4 Seasons, but I feel like I'm falling into the trap of picking favourites over what's musically better.

JD: Well I think for a relatively shorter album like Apricot Princess, that's pretty easy to do.

JR: I had the next track, Waiting Room.

JD: I had that too, I absolutely love that song. It's just one of those songs man. I always think its so funny how he just calls out his uncle.

JR: (Laughs) Yeah! And now he's massively famous, I wonder what the situation is.

JD: I wonder if he's got two, and just told both of them that it wasn't about them.

JD: (Laughing) It's just such a blatant lyric as well, 'and I don't like him'.

JR: I've always, always loved that song. Its the first thing I play whenever I pick up a guitar, so there's that kind of affiliation with it. I love how dramatic the ending is, with the ascending and descending bass notes. It's so jazzy and just such a brilliantly written song.

JD: Yeah, its one that you can really easily see into his point of view from as well. Easy listening.

JR: It's not necessarily about him either, its about his mate's romantic life and the advice he gives and what he gets in return. I think.

JD: I had Never Enough, because I wanted to include one of the faster songs. I used to drive to work, and whenever it got to this song it was always a case of turning the volume right up.

JR: Did he do it live when we saw him?

JD: I think it was when I saw him the second time, it was crazy because he did it even faster. He played the faster songs so differently with a crowd. It was just so intense.

JR: Yeahhh, 'cause when we saw him he started with Apricot Princess and went straight into Television and I remember that being pretty overwhelming.

JD: Didn't someone faint? Or nearly? No one excepted there to be bloody mosh pits at a Rex Orange County gig (laughs). The crowd when we saw him was well different to what his audience is now.

JR: That's true, we got him at a time before Taylor Swift put Loving is Easy on her playlist.

JD: Yeah, his crowds have changed into being mainly young girls, or that's what it seems. We caught him at a good time.

JR: I've watched so many videos of his performances on YouTube, and I noticed he's started to harmonise with the crowds. I think because he knows there's almost a choir of girls singing along, it sounds likes he's kind of undercutting their sound with a few variations, it sounds so so good.

JD: He wouldn't have been able to predict that when we saw him I guess.

JR: I didn't have Never Enough, just because I don't think it represents the album very well.

JD: Yeah fair enough. But it stands well on its own, I think. Compared to some of the other songs, which are a bit less structured and more fitting for a place in an album.

JR: Like Happiness?

JD: Yeah, that's my next one actually.

JR: Same! So we've got three in common, damn.

JD: I just think it's so good.

JR: I always think back to how intensely happy absolutely everyone was when he closed with it. Balloons, confetti, the music. He posted a video of the ending moment on his Instagram from that set actually, it was that amazing. 

JD: We could all see the balloons on the ceiling, but I reckon we all forgot about them throughout the set. 

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JR: I really look back on that moment so fondly, because it was just so intensely happy. Absolutely everyone was half-'whoaaa'ing, half laughing, and trying to catch the balloons. . . man, that was something else. 
JD: The song is called Happiness, and it literally made everyone there so happy.

JR: The thing is, if it didn't have that title and you were to listen to the song on its own, you wouldn't necessarily think it was that much of a happy song. . . but seeing it live, it was easily the happiest moment of the gig.

JD: 100%. So we've got three in common?

JR: Yeah OK. So despite how unreal that song is, I'm gonna put forward Apricot Princess and Waiting Room for the last bit. Waiting Room feels more complete as a song, structurally, whereas Happiness is definitely an ending. Do you get me?

JD: But it's an amazing ending.

JR: What would you rather have out of the two?

JD: Damn, I can't decide.

JR: If someone told you to put one of those songs on in here, right now, what would you choose?

JD: Probably Waiting Room, to be fair. Yeah. It's got more of a variety I guess. I love the beginning of it, it sounds like it could be on an advert for a bank or something (Laughs).

JR: (Laughing) Definitely. There's a piano riff in it that sounds so much like Kristofferson's Theme from Fantastic Mr. Fox, which immediately makes it better for me.

JD: Yeah true, I know what you mean.

JR: (Searching for Kristofferson's Theme on Spotify) Why isn't it loading. . . That's definitely how you spell 'Fantastic'. . . Right so there's nothing on Spotify beginning with 'F', sick. Caffè Nero get some WiFi.

JD: After all that, I'm still gonna say Apricot Princess is better.

JR: I'm actually going to straight up just agree with you. And Rex does too! In an interview, Rex actually recommended this as the song to listen to if you want to try to listen to him because it's a decent representation of the album.

JD: Did he really? That's cool. I think it could be seen as like a preview for the whole album, it's got a bit of everything. Like a trailer. But a really really good one.

JR: I'm quite surprised with myself for not picking one of the guitar songs, because I tend to listen to more tunes that're written and performed on the guitar. This one uses piano, strings, a glockenspiel I think? Sounds like there's some horns, and a double bass but I'm really not sure (laughs). And Thea! There's a lot. Way more than just a guitar.

JD: And Thea! I was gonna mention Untitled, a guitar track, because I know I like it, but I honestly just can't remember it? (laughs). But whenever it comes on I'm always like "Oh, I fuckin' love this song!".

JR: (Singing?) "I make enough mistakes..."

JD: Oh yeah. Yeah.

JR: Yeah, fair. Tonally, it's really simple. There's no drums, no title. It feels very unfinished and raw. But it communicates sooo much emotion that way. When he performed it live, he paired it with his cover of No One by Alicia Keys, I'm guessing because they're quite similar in that sense.

JD: That's another thing I love about him, he does really good covers.

JR: Oh man, his Hopelessly Devoted to You cover is unreal!

JD: And his. . . uhhh, what's his name?

JR: Randy Newman?

JD: Yeah! The You've Got a Friend in Me cover is amazing, and the fact that he did it with him! I was so sure they were going to use it for Toy Story 4, but, no.

JR: That would have been sickkk. That version was so incredible, when I first heard it, it was like a combination of childhood nostalgia, and music that made me happy at the time.

JD: It's surprising that he did that, for me, 'cause duets like that are really rare.

JR: So, we both love Waiting Room, but we're saying Apricot Princess is the best?

JD: Yeah.

JR: Yeah?

JD: Yeah.

JR: Cool.

25/01/20

James Roe
jroe1@hotmail.co.uk